Time-to-resolution by lawsuit type – usually well less than a year

For six types of matters, Fulbright & Jaworski’s Second Annual Litigation Trends Survey provides estimated “median average number of days to resolution (2005 at 11; but note that 45% of the respondents never track resolution time). Listed in increasing duration for US matters, they were contracts (138 days to resolution), regulatory and “other civil” (tied at 146 days), labor/employment (161 days), IP (225) and PI (358).

The business-to-business cases had the fastest resolution time (contracts), whereas two of the three slowest were individual-to-business cases (employment and personal injury).

Mostly, these seem like rocket-docket speeds of resolution, where five of the six matter types concluded within five to seven months. Perhaps rapid settlements account for part of this expedition.